A four-week old baby was among several people who had to be rescued as torrential rains lashed the central US, causing flash flooding.

Nashville firefighters waded into waist-deep water to lead residents of one apartment complex to higher ground. Others in the region had to be rescued from balconies and rooftops.

Earlier this week, a woman died in southwestern Missouri when creek water washed over a road, sweeping away her car.

Image:The baby was safely taken to dry land

Authorities in Waynesville are continuing to search for 23-year-old Jessica D Lee. The body of her four-year-old son, Elyjah, was found on Tuesday, hours after his mother made a distress call from her mobile phone.

Flash flood warnings are in force in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee. And things could get worse. Heavy rain and violent thunderstorms are forecast into the weekend.

National Weather Service meteorologist Drew Albert in Springfield, Missouri, said the rain is the result of a storm front that has stalled over the plains.

Missouri has had the worst of it. Some gauges near Waynesville recorded 15 inches (380mm) of rain in a two-day period. One-day totals of six inches (152mm) or more were common across the width of the southern part of the state.

Image:Homes and cars have been inundated by the flash flooding

Soggy south-central Kansas was under a flood warning after the same amount of rain fell early Thursday in the centre of the state.

Since the storms began on Sunday, hundreds of Kansas homes have been damaged, mostly by water in basements and sewage back-ups, said Megan Hammersmith, director of the Central Kansas Chapter of the American Red Cross.